Identity verification for online sales of high-value goods

What sellers of high-value goods ask of identity checks

Most orders in an online shop need nothing more than a payment. A small share does: the watch at a very high price, the diamond ring, the vehicle. For those the seller is treated by anti-money-laundering rules as someone who has to know the customer, and the check has to be switched on by the order, not by the account. The result is a flow with a trigger. The values in the list of goods only say which sellers are covered. The Regulation, which is forthcoming and applies from 10 July 2027, asks for customer due diligence in several situations, and a value at or above the occasional-transaction line is only one of them. Where one applies, nothing ships until the buyer, and in a resale model the supplier, have been checked.

The threshold is the difficult part. A single order may sit below the line while a series of orders from one buyer crosses it, and a marketplace may not see the whole picture if goods change hands through several sellers. The rule that triggers the check therefore belongs where the shop sees all the orders, which is the shop's own system. The check itself is the same however it was triggered: a person, a document, a live face and a record of when it was done.

• Switch the check on by the value of the order, including linked orders, and by the other situations the rules name.
• Verify the buyer without making an account compulsory.
• Verify the person who supplies the goods, when the shop sells on consignment or resells.
• Screen buyer and supplier for sanctions and PEP status.
• Keep a record that shows what was checked and when.

The flow

1. Trigger. Your shop decides that customer due diligence applies, and this rule is yours. In the Regulation the situations are: establishing a business relationship; an occasional transaction of at least EUR 10,000, alone or through linked transactions; a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, whatever the value; doubts about the veracity or adequacy of identification data already obtained; and doubts as to whether the person interacted with is the customer or authorised to act for the customer. A cash transaction of at least EUR 3,000, alone or through linked transactions, calls for at least identifying the customer and verifying the customer's identity, unless a Member State has a limit on large cash payments of EUR 3,000 or less in place, with an exception that the Regulation sets out.
2. Start. Your backend creates a session and sends the buyer a one-time link, or the buyer scans a QR code to move from a desktop to a phone.
3. Questionnaire. The buyer enters name, birth date, contacts and the custom fields you need, such as the order number, before the KYC starts.
4. Document and face. The buyer photographs the document, the selfie is matched to the document portrait and active liveness confirms a live person.
5. Screening. AML screening covers sanctions, PEP with relatives and close associates, and adverse media.
6. Supplier. On a consignment or resale, a second one-time link goes to the supplier, who follows the same steps.
7. Release. Your shop reads the session status or receives a webhook, and its own rule releases the order for shipping. Cases that need a person are decided in the dashboard, where the session log, reports and export are kept.

Where this differs from the marketplace page

The e-commerce and marketplaces page is about seller verification at scale: sellers invited in bulk, proof of address, banned sellers kept out. This page is about the transaction. The check is triggered by what is being sold and for how much, and it applies to a buyer who may never open an account. In a resale model it also reaches a second person, the supplier, which a seller-onboarding flow does not need.

Modules used

• Document verification, face verification and liveness.
• QR hand-off, one-time links and questionnaire.
• AML screening, billed separately.
• Dashboard for the session log, reports and manual decisions.
• REST API and webhooks.

Regulatory frame

What the European Union's AML Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, says about persons who trade in high-value goods. The Regulation is forthcoming and applies from 10 July 2027.

• Under Article 3, point (3)(f), persons trading, as a regular or principal professional activity, in high-value goods are obliged entities.
• Annex IV lists the high-value goods: jewellery and gold or silversmith articles of a value exceeding EUR 10,000, clocks and watches of a value exceeding EUR 10,000, motor vehicles of a price exceeding EUR 250,000, and aircraft and watercraft of a price exceeding EUR 7,500,000.
• Under Article 19(1), point (b), obliged entities apply customer due diligence when carrying out an occasional transaction of a value of at least EUR 10,000, whether in a single operation or through linked transactions, or a lower value laid down under paragraph 9 of that Article.
• Under Article 19(6), point (a), for the obliged entities it names, which include persons trading in high-value goods, the supplier of goods is a customer in addition to the direct customer.
• Under Article 74(1), persons trading in high-value goods report to the financial intelligence unit all sales of motor vehicles for a price of at least EUR 250,000 and of watercraft or aircraft for a price of at least EUR 7,500,000 when the goods are acquired for non-commercial purposes.

This block describes the text, not our service. For information; not legal advice.

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Official Journal text, fetched 26 October 2026.

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